SILVERHILL, Alabama — The Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce hosted its third Coffee with law enforcement officials, holding its Coffee with the Chief event on Friday with Silverhill Police Chief Kevin Brock at Café Acadiana in Silverhill.

About 20 residents attended the event. Two similar events were held – a Coffee with the Sheriff with Baldwin County Sheriff Huey “Hoss” Mack, held at Willy T’s in Robertsdale; and Coffee with the Chief, with Robertsdale Police Chief Brad Kendrick, held at Goo Roo’s in Robertsdale – earlier this year.

Brock, a resident of Silverhill and a 1984 graduate of Robertsdale High School, was hired as Silverhill’s top cop in June following the termination in January of Police Chief Kim Wasdin.

Coming into the position with just one full-time officer, Al Malone, Brock has so far hired two additional officers, one full-time, Michael Taylor, a retired federal agent who is now Silverhill’s chief investigator and will be in charge of the department’s revamped reserve program; and a part-time officer, John Branscomb, who works with the Mobile County Department of Corrections.

“We are working on our budget for the coming year right now and are hoping to have four full-time and three part-time officers at full staff,” Brock said.

Brock has also been working to provide equipment for the department.

“I’ve been in law enforcement for a long time and I have a lot of friends in law enforcement,” he said. “I’ve reached out to them and we’ve gotten a lot of equipment donated.”

In addition to standard-issue shotguns, donated by the Summerdale Police Department, Brock said Silverhill also has new uniforms and was able to purchase two used police cruisers for the department, which have been fully equipped and marked.

“I’m old school,” he said. “I want everything to be uniform and all the police officers and cars to be marked so that people know who they are dealing with. To me that does two things, it acts as a deterrent for criminals and it acts as a reassurance for law-abiding citizens to know that we are there to protect them.”

As with the other two “Coffee” events, Brock addressed specific questions concerning Silverhill, such as traffic issues and in particular a rash of auto thefts.

“I call them door checkers,” he said, “where people are going around pulling on door handles to see if cars are unlocked, so they can find cash or something in the vehicles they can sell for cash. I just want to encourage everyone to keep your car doors locked.”